Page 38 - MetalForming December 2012

Tooling Technology
Robotics
Boost Welding Productivity
...by 50 percent for this Akron, OH metal stamping and assembly facility.
Among the stamped, welded and assembled components manu- factured at Pioneer Tool & Die, a privately-held stamping facility in Akron, OH, are air-ride suspensions. Owner and CEO Walter Remen under- stands well that the company’s future relies on investigating new technolo- gies to keep production in step with customer demands. Fitting the bill: robotic arc welding.
The company’s journey into robotic welding began with a visit by Remen and vice president of engineering Barry Foore to the Lincoln Electric Compa-
ny’s Automation Division, for a look at its System 20 robotic-welding system. The standardized package includes a Fanuc ArcMate 100iC six-axis robot and a Lin- coln Power Wave i400 power supply.
To exceed cycle-time targets, Lin- coln worked with Pioneer Tool & Die to enhance the standard System 20 with a Power Wave 455M power source, paired with a Power Feed 10R wire drive. Also included is extra input/output capac- ity to handle the Pioneer-designed automated clamping setups.
Designed for small to medium-sized parts, the standard System 20 features
Pioneer Tool & Die credits its new
robotic arc-welding system with improving produc-
tivity by as much as 50 percent over previous welding
operations. The
faces of the robotically
deposited fillet welds are consistently flat to slightly convex, with repeatable weld penetration and sidewall fusion.
a Fanuc servo-drive 58-in. two sided turntable positioner. Each work zone can handle weldments weighing as much as 600 lb.; the turntable can index in 2 sec.
Pulsed-Arc Welding
For its System 20 cell, the Pioneer Tool & Die engineering team worked with Lincoln Electric to settle on pulsed gas-metal-arc welding (GMAW-P) as the process of choice. The use of Lincoln’s RapidArc pulsed mode of weldmetal transfer, notes the engineering team, helps to minimize spatter and improve cycle times for completed parts.
The RapidArc program, compared to traditional pulsed-wave shapes, deliv- ers a very tight arc length, say Lincoln officials, as well as higher travel speeds and a lower heat input. The program features a short-circuit response, which occurs with a high travel speed and tight arc length.
Selection of the most appropriate RapidArc program depends on the welding wire required for the task at hand at Pioneer. The firm uses wire
36 MetalForming/December 2012
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